Sometimes a book finds you when you need it and don’t even know you need it.

Over the last few years, I’ve read some of Andrew Klavan’s columns. He’s an excellent writer, the author of novels, film scripts and works of non-fiction.

I have always been a sucker for a good love story, so when I was told that J. M. Coetzee — who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature — had a new novel and that it was a love story (“The Pole,” W. Norton & Co., 2023), I was all in. 

Friday, May 30, was a banner day I’ll long remember.

A soft Carolina-blue sky topped the Virginia hills and fields as I drove to novelist Mark Helprin’s farm, Windrow, in the countryside north of Charlottesville.

Citizens and constituents of Sylva, I’d like to offer you an apology. In fact, I owe you two.

All Sylva residents are also Jackson County constituents — Sylva is the county seat, and county-level decisions affect us directly. The Jackson County Public Library is a clear example. 

To the Editor:

I would like to speak in support of a decision from this board to remove from a library system that continues to make decisions that offer and highlight sexually based material, including sexually explicit material, for children.

The following events will be held at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

• Elizabeth and Quintin Ellison will present “Land of Blue Shadows: Mountain Life in Verse & View” — a poetry and photography collaboration with the late George Ellison — at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 14.

In the course of human events, there does come a time when comedy is in order. Such was a time last month for me. I was choosing a book to read and I needed comedy.

“Morte D’Urban,” a novel by J. F. Powers (Doubleday, 1962), had been recommended by a trusted friend. It is brilliantly funny and, how wonderful, much more than that. 

A reading for “Stronger Than The Storm: Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina” will take place from 5–7 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. The collection features work from over two dozen contributors reflecting on last fall’s storm. Proceeds support ongoing Helene relief efforts. 

Sometimes fictional books, when they’re written well, can give the same, if not more, insight to a people and culture than a history book can. Alan Paton’s “Cry, the Beloved Country” (Scribner, 2003, 316 pages) is one of those novels. 

Let's be clear. No one is “attacking” libraries because we all support the basic function of a true library which Webster's Dictionary defines as “a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (such as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are kept for use but not for sale.” To spread disinformation that people are “attacking” the library we love is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I think some people are just mad that the light has been shined under the bed at the problems.